Scaling up projects, programs, and their impact involves expanding their scope, coverage, funding, and replication. This allows benefits to reach more people, but it requires overcoming challenges like limited budgets. Strategies include leveraging co-financing, mainstreaming into government programs, and helping smallholders organize collectively to gain influence and access markets and services. The goal of scaling up is to sustainably improve livelihoods at a wide scale. It works best by strengthening community institutions first and then linking smallholder groups to private sector partners and financing sources. With the right models and incentives, scaling up can bridge the viability gap between what communities and the private sector can support alone.

1. SCALING UP
An Empowering
Tool
Adolfo Brizzi, Director PTA, IFAD
June 14, 2012

2. WHAT ARE WE
SCALING UP ?
Our projects
– From small to big
– Limited scope to larger coverage
– Phase 1 to Phase 2 …..
This is a money issue
The more money is available the easier it is

3. WHAT ARE WE
SCALING UP ?
What about if the money is short ? $
We have ideas
• Innovate, make it work and hope for someone else to
pick it up and replicate
• Co-financing
• Leverage remittances
• Mainstreaming into Government Programs (MIC agenda)
• Policy dialogue

4. What about helping the
poor reach scale ?
• Scaling up not an end but a means to achieve wide-spread
benefits
• When you are poor, voice and scale is the best hope to be
heard and create opportunities
• Scale is power, collective action, organization, becoming a
market (consumers and producers), economy of scale,
efficiency, reduced transaction costs, bargaining capacity,
access to services
• The bottom of the pyramid:
potentially the biggest untapped
market by the private sector.
• Scale up as a leverage to
sustainability

5. IFAD Agenda ?
• BOP: Largely a poor small-holder business
• Organize the tail-end of the value chains
• Micro-finance, risk management tools
• Institutions of the poor, social empowerment, “facebook effect”
• Mostly a software agenda, (not a money issue)
• Can be self-replicated
• Enhance private sector ability to access BOP as organized
markets (supply chains)
• Leveraging a potentially much bigger financing capacity
• Need to operationalize the concept of “pathway to scaling up”
in project design as a way to build collective action

6. Where are we coming from:
a dysfunctional model
Dominant, Inefficient
Public Sector
Private
Sector
Public Sector Disinterested Private
Sector
Intermediaries High transaction costs
of all sorts
Communities
Do-Good Projects
Disorganized smallholders
and groups

7. We need a new model:
PPP with a “P” for people
Devise regulatory
framework and incentive
mechanism for PPP
Public Sector Private Sector
Private Sectr
Rethink public sector Attract private sector
and link their business
intervention and model with
find better ways to development objectives
deliver services
People Sector
Smallholder Sector Becoming a market and
Demand for governance & leveraging more
accountability competition, access to
banking, markets, etc.
Institutions of the poor

8. The graduation model
Franchising
Community
Retailing Trade
Marketing enterprises
Banking Commodity
Savings & services Cooperatives Federation of
Loans Coops User Groups
Different levels of associative and federative tiers
Resource-based
Affinity-based Activity-based
Value Chains Irrigation,
Savings and Loans Assets/marketing Watershed, forestry

9. Institutions first
Money second
Money and Influence
Banks Agri-business Control over nat. res.
Microfinance Input suppliers (land, water, forest, fish)
Insurance Co. Service Providers Sustainable Use/finance
Service Providers Insurance/warehouse Agri-business
Going to Scale
People Sector Institutions

10. Bridge the viability gap
Agriculture is a business, but for the private sector to work with
smallholders it costs more. We can help bridge the viability gap.
On the demand side:
– create a new market. BOP, People Sector, scale, collective action.
– Demonstrate creditworthiness of our clients to banks/MFIs, leverage
remittances
On the Supply side. If “people sector” scale is not enough (transaction
costs too high), devise an incentive mechanism to attract the private
sector.
– Subsidizing private goods through matching grants not a solution.
– Better to finance (semi) public goods as part of matching grants, but
associated to the private sector business plan.
– Design matching grants competitively and look for leveraging private
sector money in project design (co-financing)

11. Take away
• Scale up results not necessarily projects
• Financial sustainability and scaling up more likely to come through
the private sector, remittances, banks, beneficiaries contribution,
rather than ODA or Government.
• In MIC, need a different engagement approach. Innovation, KM,
policy dialogue, leveraging public and private sector money
• Build scale up strategy in project design (“pathway”)
• Develop delivery “products” around the “people sector” models,
brand them and sell them. Wholesale rather than retail

12. Make ideas converge
1000 flower bloom Branding & Customizing

13. Scaling Up: deal with growing
complexity by keeping things simple
• Highly distinctive core business
• Keep the business model as simple as possible
• Apply it relentlessly to new opportunities and innovate
• In pruning your catalogue and bringing it to scale make
sure you keep what works
• Keep flexibility, constant revision and innovation to adapt
your core products and survive changes
• Keep some part of your business on innovation only
• Innovation leads to scaling up which can lead to more
innovation